The Day the Crayons Quit

One day as Duncan goes to pull out his crayons for coloring, he find a stack of letters instead. Each letter is written by a different colored crayon. Their reasons vary (red does too much work on holidays, beige feels overshadowed by brown, pink is ignored as a girl's color, orange and yellow argue over the true color of the sun), but the message is the same: they are DONE with coloring.

As of last week, The Day the Crayons Quit has been published for a whole year and has spent the entire time on the New York Times bestseller list. At first read-through, it's easy to see why. The illustrations are quirky, simple, and cute in that way that is stylistically popular right now. The text is humorous and engaging. There's just enough wit to appeal to a variety of ages from preschool to middle elementary ages AND, this is a big bonus, it's witty enough that parents won't mind reading again and again to a demanding cherub who can't get enough of the peach crayon's embarrassment over having his clothes paper peeled off. (Thirty-six times in one day at this house is the current record.)

You can find The Day the Crayons Quit in the Picture Books - About Art section of The Book Children Store.

Under the Egg

Laura Marx Fitzgerald's debut novel, Under the Egg, delightfully weaves NYC childhood with urban farming, WWII history, and art history. I'm not sure any other middle grade novels have ever hit quite as many of my own personal interests. Needless to say, Under the Egg was a captivating read that I could not put down until I finished every last chapter. 

Under the Egg begins with Theodora Tenpenny (Theo) relying on her resourcefulness and grit to manage the large NYC house, and accompanying garden, she inherited following her grandfather's death. Theo's mother lives with her, but she clearly has some mental or emotional challenges that prevent her from truly mothering Theo. When Theo accidentally spills rubbing alcohol on one of her grandfather's paintings, a painting that easily rubs off to reveal another older, Renaissance-style painting, Theo's curiosity kicks into high gear. That curiosity leads her on an adventure involving providential new friends, pretentious art experts, Nazi internment camp research, and ultimately, the secret her grandfather was desperate for her to uncover.

Under the Egg blends equal parts mystery and adventure in an engaging romp through NYC with a most clever protagonist. Theo's self-reliance is remarkable, and her determination is admirable. Fitzgerald's writing shines, and the language, content, and dialogue ring with an advanced tone. Despite being marketed as a middle grade read, I thought 11-14 would probably be the ideal ages to read this novel, and it would make a perfect accompaniment to a middle school WWII unit study. I truly wish I could've read Under the Egg to my own 13 year old when she studied WWII last fall.

Under the Egg can be found in the Middle Grade Books section of The Book Children Store.

Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue

My older boys have been huge fans of the Origami Yoda books since the first one came out when my oldest was in upper elementary school. Since then, both older boys have eagerly anticipated the arrival of each new volume in the series. The excitement over the books hit its peak when they were able to meet Tom Angleberger in person 2 summers ago and get his signature in the Fortune Wookie book. (I blogged about that experience, and the flurry of paper-folding that commenced, here.) They were, of course, thrilled to get the latest addition, Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue recently, and Paulie, my 14 year old, was kind enough to review it for you here:

The kids at McQuarrie Middle School love origami. Their elective classes were taken away because they scored too low on the mandatory testing. The electives were replaced with a program called FunTime which is a guy with his singing calculator teaching everyone how to do simple problems. The kids want their electives back. They start this club called the Origami Rebel Alliance, each of the club members has their own origami counterpart, to demand their principal give them the electives back. The kids wrote a case file, but it was stolen by a mysterious person called Princess Labelmaker and given to the principal along with a origami Princess Leia. 

I liked the book. It was a good addition to the series. I’m anxious to read the last one. And I really can’t wait to try out the origami instructions in the back of the book!

Since I was fortunate enough to win a pair of books, including Princess Labelmaker, in a giveaway last week, I thought I'd pay it forward to one lucky winner here at The Book Children! You can enter the giveaway below in the Rafflecopter. This giveaway only lasts for 24 hours! Enter now!

All of the Origami Yoda Books are available in a new Humor section of The Book Children Store.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Little Blue and Little Yellow

Yes, he's probably more famous for Swimmy, Frederick, Cornelius and a permanent color-desiring chameleon, but Leo Lionni's Little Blue and Little Yellow is right at the top of my list of favorite art books for little ones. The pure genius of personalizing a blob of color and giving it a bigger blob of color for parents makes this story so easily identifiable to the preschool set in a simple yet engaging way.

The main blobs of color, little blue and little yellow, even find other little blobs of color friends and play hide and seek behind black strips of paper. Genius, I'm telling you!

When little blue and little yellow hug and turn themselves permanently green, hilarity ensues as their parents think they are missing. A fun way to use this book to help young children express creativity is to see what other little colors could be made if different color blobs hugged.

Little blue even shares a smooch with his parents at the end, and you can almost see the affection between these different sized blobs of color.

What a fabulous book for stretching a little one's creativity while giving them imaginable adventure! I love it!

first art books

I discovered one of these at a high end children's shop and one at a thrift shop when Finn was very small and they quickly became two of his favorite board books. With such vibrant color and varied art, they captured his attention and even occasionally now he'll flip through one and want to talk about the images he sees.

Part of the Mini Masters board book series, A Magical Day with Matisse features such lovely, vibrant color overflowing even beyond the magical paintings of Matisse.

Loosely describing the scene, lyrical text accompanies the paintings, although sometimes we would just talk about the items in the room, for example, instead of reading it like a book.

Elizabeth has held immense love for Van Gogh since she was about 3 so it was natural that she would want to share In The Garden With Van Gogh with her brother.

Even now as Finn is moving beyond the board book phase, we enjoy counting the irises and grouping them by color. Endless possibilities!